A giant inflatable shark named Chompie has occasionally graced Discovery Communications’ Silver Spring headquarters during Shark Week over the years. (Photos by Vitalii Folomeev)

Discovery Communications is laying off 212 employees from its Silver Spring headquarters on October 1 in preparation for its headquarters’ move to New York City, according to a work adjustment filing with the state of Maryland.

The news was first reported by the Washington Business Journal. Discovery is a communications company that owns several popular cable news channels like Animal Planet, TLC, and the Oprah Winfrey network.

Discovery first announced it was decamping for New York in January. About 1,300 people currently work at the headquarters, and some of them will relocate to other company locations, reports Bethesda Beat. Discovery will continue to keep some presence in Maryland, though it is in the process of selling its headquarters.

A year ago, Discovery announced its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive, another communications company whose channels include Food Network, HGTV, the Travel Channel, and the Cooking Channel. That acquisition immediately sparked questions about whether the company would stay in Silver Spring, particularly now that it had Scripps’ Knoxville, Tennessee headquarters to staff and maintain.

In the end, the company decided to pare down its locations.

“It became clear that, pending closure of the Scripps transaction, we could not operate three large facilities in the U.S.,” Discovery chief executive David Zaslav told The Washington Post in January.

The move is a blow for the state of Maryland. Discovery is one of four Fortune 500 companies headquartered there. The company was offered financial incentives to stay, including a $375,000 grant from Montgomery County, reports the Post.

Discovery will move to New York by 2019.

It’s unclear what positions will be cut in October or how many more layoffs there are to come. DCist has reached out to Discovery and will update this story if it hears back.